Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held separate talks with his counterparts from Japan Shinzo Abe and Australia Malcolm Turnbull focusing on crafting a new strategy for the Indo-Pacific region in the backdrop of emerging configuration of a key quadrilateral alliance.

On the second day of the ASEAN summit here, Modi also held bilateral meetings with Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and discussed ways to further ramp up cooperation in various key areas like trade and investment and maritime security.

The prime minister’s meetings with Abe and Turnbull came a day after he held “very expansive” talks with US President Donald Trump on intensifying overall security and defence cooperation, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region where China is strengthening its military build up. Read More…